Mixed feelings about new salmon rules

For the first time since 2007, anglers this year can chase fall-run Chinook salmon on three Central Valley rivers, including part of the Delta.

Alex Breitler

For the first time since 2007, anglers this year can chase fall-run Chinook salmon on three Central Valley rivers, including part of the Delta.

But some fishermen aren't as thrilled as you might think.

First of all, the narrow seasons set Thursday by the California Fish and Game Commission may not include times when salmon populations are thickest as they migrate upstream.

What's more, the salmon crash of the past two years has some folks wondering if they should dip their lines into the water at all.

David Scatena of Stockton said he still feels guilty for salmon that he caught - and kept - before 2008. After all, salmon that are taken are salmon that won't spawn.

"I'm sure there's a lot of fishermen that are happy as clams," Scatena said Thursday. "But I think the salmon runs are still in serious jeopardy. I just can't believe that they have recovered completely."

Salmon fishing will be allowed on the Sacramento, American and Feather rivers, but not on the San Joaquin River or its tributaries.

Extremely limited fishing for late fall-run fish was allowed on the Sacramento in 2008 and 2009, but only between Knights Landing and the Red Bluff Diversion Dam.

This year will offer more opportunity, though far less than the six-month seasons anglers enjoyed in the past.

"With a wide-open season, we'd risk damaging a whole year's class of fish. I think the commission did the right thing," said Dick Pool, a fish advocate and gear distributor based in Concord.

"My opinion," Pool added, "is that (2010) is going to be another economic disaster" for fishing guides and suppliers.

Pool said anglers won't be able to fish when the salmon are most abundant. For example, fishing on the Sacramento above the Red Bluff Diversion Dam will not begin until Oct. 9, after many of the fish have already arrived, spawned and died.

The commission based its decision on data from the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which has predicted that 245,500 fall-run fish will return to the Central Valley in 2010. That's better than the record-low 39,530 fish last year, but still lower than years before the crash.

Federal officials said in 2008 that a lack of food in the ocean was the primary culprit for the precipitous decline in salmon, though Delta advocates believe increased pumping of water to Southern California was the cause.

Stockton's Jay Sorensen fishes mostly for striped bass and sturgeon, but before 2008 he'd also troll for king Chinook while his boat motored up the Sacramento River near Isleton.

Whenever a salmon took the lure, he said, "You'd just see this spectacular jump behind the boat. It's really thrilling to see that.